Greener Every Week – Another Laundry Option

So I previously mentioned that I wash my clothes with Dr. Bronner’s soap, and that still works great, but last week I was walking around a farmer’s market and saw a booth selling something they called “Soap Nuts.”

In addition to having a name that makes me giggle (because I’m 12), turns out they are an awesome way to do your laundry. They are literally nuts (like, from a tree) that you put in a little bag and throw in with your laundry. That’s it! No softener, no detergent, just nuts. They have a saponin coating on the inside that gets your clothes wonderfully clean and soft naturally. A half-pound bag is $15 from the people I bought mine from or $16.95 from Amazon – but you can use the same 5 or so nuts for 5-7 loads of laundry, so they’re very economical!

Has anyone else heard of these? With one ingredient that is actually a plant, it seems hard to get much more simple or eco-friendly, and they are supposedly very good for people with allergies or sensitive skin (I’ve used them myself and have had no problems, but I’m not terribly sensitive to that kind of thing). And for those of you keeping score, this counts for last week’s “Greener Every Week” – I’ll be doing another one later this week to get caught up since I was out of town last week.

Also, if you haven’t already noticed, I now have a rating system for my recipes – above every recipe post is a bar with 5 stars, which you can click to rate the recipe. If you’ve made anything of mine please go back and rate it, I’d love the feedback and it helps other readers decide what they want to make for themselves. Thanks!

8 Comments

I’m definitely going to try the soap nuts at some point in time. Meantime, I have a truckload of Dr. Bronner’s that I’d love to use for laundry but never have. I’m worried that it won’t go in my HE washer. Do you know if it is okay for that? THANKS!!

I read about soap nuts on another blog and am intrigued! The other blog’s author added a few drops of essential oil to the soap nuts, so laundry came out subtly scented. Neat idea, but not for me. I like my clean clothes unscented. 🙂

Hi Jessica, I’m from India & soap nuts were used as shampoo from d ancient times known. They were passed to us for generations. Fine chikpea flour or mung flour (may be combined with some fragrant herbals) is used as body wash. This is not only a greener way but u feel ur skin is so happy & fresh with them. Using ’em after applying oil is like having a luxurious bath & work out at d same time :). I still remember using them . Thanks for remembering it once again. Hope I’d try them next time when we go to India & its much cheaper there too…;)…bye